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First Edition Cycling News for November 25, 2003

Edited by Jeff Jones

T-Mobile presentation sans Ullrich

Team T-Mobile (Telekom) was presented to the media on Monday in Cologne,
or more accurately on a boat on the Rhine river in Cologne. Only 24 of
the 25 members of the team were present, with new signing Jan Ullrich
a no show on account of the contractual dispute between himself and Team
Bianchi. On the other hand, ex-Team Bianchi rider Tobias Steinhauser was
present in at T-Mobile's presentation in Cologne, having cleared it with
his former team first.

After 13 years as Telekom, the team managed by Walter Godefroot is changing
its name to T-Mobile next year. The German telecom giant will continue
to support the squad until at least 2006, with next year's budget approximately
€12 million. It's main goal is no secret: to win the Tour de France
with Jan Ullrich. "We have one of the best teams in the world," said Godefroot.
"There is Armstrong and there is Ullrich, but I think that we have more
depth."

Jan Ullrich has already started training for next season, and hopes
to make his debut in the Tour of Mallorca in February. His main goals
are the Tour and the Olympics, but the Giro d'Italia is not on his program
as T-Mobile will likely forego it.

Erik Zabel is focusing on the Tour de France next year too, and said
at the presentation that he will avoid the most of the spring classics
save for Milan-San Remo and the Amstel Gold Race in order to keep his
energy for the rest of the season.

In addition to Ullrich, T-Mobile boasts this year's third place Tour
finisher Alexandre Vinokourov, along with top sprinter Erik Zabel, time
trial specialist Santiago Botero, Giro winner Paolo Savoldelli, Championship
of Zurich winner Daniele Nardello, and promising Australian Cadel Evans.
The team has also added Serguei Ivanov (Fassa Bortolo), Bram Schmitz (Bankgiroloterij),
Tomas Konecny (Ed'system ZVVZ), Tobias Steinhauser and Andre Korff (Team
Bianchi) and Eric Baumann (Team Wiesenhof). This year, without Ullrich
(and effectively without Savoldelli and Evans), Telekom finished third
in the world rankings. Next year it hopes to improve on that.

Team Bianchi's chances diminish

The chances that Team Bianchi will continue next season are diminishing,
according to an ANP report. After the departure of Jan Ullrich to T-Mobile
and the consequent withdrawal of Bianchi's sponsorship, the team managed
by Jacques Hanegraaf has basically collapsed.

"The likelihood that the team remains in existence is quite small,"
Hanegraaf told ANP. "I go from there to say that the end is nigh. It is
disappointing, most of all for the ten riders who have still not found
a team for next year."

The team is still in discussions with the lawyers of Jan Ullrich about
his unpaid salary since August.

Prudhomme takes Baal's place in A.S.O.

French television journalist Christian Prudhomme has taken over Daniel
Baal's position as "Director of Cycling" in the Amaury Sport Organisation
(A.S.O.), the group that runs the Tour de France and other big races.
Daniel Baal, who at one stage was seen as Jean-Marie Leblanc's successor,
announced his resignation in September after nearly two years in the job,
but A.S.O. did not wish to make it public until it had found a replacement.

Baal will not leave his post until January 31, 2004, while Christian
Prudhomme will take up his role on January 1. "His competence regarding
cycling and the passion that this sport inspires in him convinced the
directors of the A.S.O. that Christian Prudhomme would be a valuable asset
for the cycling races that it organises each year," the A.S.O. said in
a statement.

Valverde's manager doesn't want Casero in Kelme

Kelme cyclist Alejandro Valverde's manager, Gorka Arrinda, has indicated
that things would be "difficult" in Kelme should it sign Angel Casero.
Although Valverde has a four year contract with Kelme, his manager told
Euro pa Press that had they known Kelme was interested in Casero, they
would not have renewed Valverde's contract.

"At no point has Valverde looked for another team, but the sporting
project has changed. The commitment from the director Vicente Belda and
the boss Pepe Quiles was the continuation of Sevilla, Quique Gutiérrez
and Tauler, and the acquisition of another leader, but if he told us that
this was going to be Casero we would not have renewed," said Arrinda.

"The spirit of this team was exactly what [Valverde] wanted and if this
was broken, Valverde would not have been interested in it. The sporting
credibility is worth more than the economic aspect, and Kelme's philosophy
would lose its guarantee with the arrival of Casero."

Bettini awarded Giglio d'Oro

The world's number one ranked cyclist, Paolo Bettini, has been awarded
the Giglio d'Oro in Pontenuovo di Calenzano, Italy in recognition of his
achievements this year. In accepting the award, the Italian who won three
World Cup races as well as the World Cup itself, announced his major goals
for next season. "I want to win one of the northern classics," said Bettini.
"Then I'll ride the Tour and, more than the World's in Verona, the objective
will be the Olympics."

Gilberto Simoni, the winner of the 2003 Giro d'Italia, was also awarded
in Pontenuovo di Calenzano. "I'm aiming for the Giro triple and in the
Tour I want to give Armstrong problems," said Simoni.

In other awards, Damiano Cunego was given the Memorial Gastone Nencini
for being the revelation of the year, while Alessandro Petacchi, with
his 15 victories in Grand Tour stages, took home the Trofeo Gino Bartali,
and Giovanni Visconti, the U23 Italian and European champion, was also
recognised. Finally a special prize was given to Francesco Moser, who
won an incredible nine "Gigli d'Oro" during his impressive career.

An interview with Anthony Geslin

Brioches La Boulangère's Anthony Geslin is part of the new generation
of French professionals - young, hard-working, and eager to fulfil his
dreams as a pro cyclist one step at a time. For Geslin, his second year
as a pro was a year of ups and downs: solid race results, a commendable
performance in his first Tour de France, and the shock of friend and teammate
Fabrice Salanson's death on the eve of the Tour of Germany.

After some time off the bike at the end of the season, Geslin sat down
with Stéphanie Langlais to talk about how things are going
so far, the magic that is the Tour de France, and where his career can
go from here.

Cyclingnews: Anthony, what brought you to cycling?

Anthony Geslin: Without doubt it was my family that
gave me a taste for cycling. My father did cyclo-touring rides and my
uncle raced. When I was around 10 or 12 years old I went to watch him
race. I enjoyed it, and I got my license with the club in Damigny, next
to Alençon [where he lives-Ed]. I stayed there four years
before moving to Rouen, where I was with Team Péan until 1999.
I started to win some big races, including the French national junior
time trial championships in 1997 and 1998.

At that point I realized that I was going to devote my life to cycling,
since many previous winners of that event had gone on to successful careers.
Everything followed after that: I joined the junior national team and
the Vendée U team before turning pro in 2002 with Bonjour. I made
the decision to stop my studies after high school with a diploma in sports
education.

CN: Does cycling's history interest you?

AG: I have to admit that knowing what happened in
the 1972 Tour de France doesn't really interest me. I'm more interested
in the present. On the other hand, I do have one idol: Laurent Jalabert.
He's somebody that I admire, for the career he had and for his simplicity.
I had the chance to meet him at the world championships in Zolder last
year. [Geslin was an alternate for the French national team in the road
race] He's very accessible and very nice. Plus, deciding to retire while
still at the top... that's class.

CN: In the end, what is cycling to you? What does it do for you?

AG: First of all it's a passion that's inspired me
since I was very young. For me the sport is about solitary effort, at
the same time anchored in a group context. I came to understand the importance
of the team and of working for a leader little by little. In the beginning
I thought about the individual side before everything else.

Cycling is also about camaraderie and being together after the races.
I like the sincerity that exists within the sport. On the other hand,
what I can't stand is hypocrisy: those who put their own interests ahead
of the team's. But in most cases the riders who behave like that quickly
gain a reputation and it doesn't go unnoticed in the eyes of their directeurs
sportifs.

Mayo to help Colombian charity

Basque cyclist Iban Mayo (Euskaltel-Euskadi) will lend his support to
one of the charity projects of the ONG Kainabera de Elorrio in Colombia.
Mayo, winner of the Alpe d'Huez stage in this year's Tour de France, will
gather with several other top sportsmen in Bilbao, Spain on Tuesday to
unveil the project, which aims to create five communal dining rooms to
feed over 2000 women and children in southern Bogota.

Journalists beat cyclists in football benefit

A team of Tuscan journalists has beaten a team of cyclists in a football
benefit match held on Sunday, November 22 in the stadium of Cecina. The
final score line was 5-4, with Paolo Bettini scoring a couple of goals
for the cyclists. The match helped to raise money for the victims of the
recent Nassiriya bomb attacks, which killed a number of Italians, and
the humanitarian organisation Emergency.

Saeco signs Loosli and Matzbacher

Team Saeco has added two more riders to its line up, which now numbers
23. David Loosli from Switzerland, who rode with the team as a stagiaire
this year, and Austrian Andreas Matzbacher, the current Under 23 Austrian
champion, will join Eddy Mazzoleni, Gabriele Balducci, Sylvester Szmyd,
Evgeni Petrov and Gorazd Stangelj as the new additions to Claudio Corti's
squad. The existing riders are: Gilberto Simoni, Danilo Di Luca, Mirko
Celestino, Dario Pieri, Salvatore Commesso, Gerrit Glomser, Alessandro
Bertagnolli, Antonio Bucciero, Damiano Cunego, Paolo Fornaciari, Juan
Fuentes, Jörg Ludewig, Marius Sabaliauskas, Alessandro Spezialetti, Andrea
Tonti and Giosue Bonomi.

"We're fully satisfied with the line up of the team even if we can't
rule out the possibility of a further two signings, especially for our
Tour de France team," Team manager Claudio Corti said.

Team Saeco will meet between November 25-27 in Coccaglio near Brescia
for its first technical team briefing. This first session will be dedicated
to the planning of training and race programs, rider testing and the study
of clothing and equipment (both components and clothing).

Mercatone Uno riders to Barloworld

South African Team Barloworld is aiming for second division with the
signing of half a dozen Italians, mostly from Mercatone Uno, along with
two unnamed Spaniards plus Team Bianchi's Swedish sprinter/classics rider
Stefan Adamsson, according to Norwegian website Syklingens Verden.

Australian Sean Sullivan and South Africans James Perry, Ryan Cox and
Tiaan Kannemeyer are staying on the team that will also sign their South
Africans Jock Green and Darren Lill from HSBC.

As has already been reported, Alberto Elli will become a directeur sportif
within the team.